With regard to additional funding for hospital discharge—£600 million in 2023– 24 and £1 billion in 2024–25—the Department told us that delayed discharges had been consistently lower over the last 6 months than the previous year despite an increase in emergency admissions. The Department said that the best measure of whether money had been well spent was “supported discharges” – the number of people being discharged with a package of social care or community care. We heard that supported disc...

With regard to additional funding for hospital discharge—£600 million in 2023– 24 and £1 billion in 2024–25—the Department told us that delayed discharges had been consistently lower over the last 6 months than the previous year despite an increase in emergency admissions. The Department said that the best measure of whether money had been well spent was “supported discharges” – the number of people being discharged with a package of social care or community care. We heard that supported discharges were 17% higher at the end of December 2023 than December 2022.25 In written evidence, Mencap cautioned that one-off discharge funds like this do Type: conclusion | Number: 12 | Response status: accepted Government response: 2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 2.2 Since Spending Review 2021, the government has made available up to £8.6 billion in additional funding over 2023-24 and 2024-25 for adult social care and discharge. This fundi